Miami Heat rising star Bam Adebayo recently revealed that he underwent a major body transformation over the offseason after spending much of the summer in the weight room.
“I got in the weight room,” Adebayo told the Miami Herald. “Just because last year, I couldn’t lift as much as I could because I had my shoulder injury from the Finals. So I was thinner up top than I should’ve been. That comes with recovery. Since we had such a short offseason and went straight into last season, I could only do so much. But this offseason, I’ve really been in the weight room and made a conscious effort to get my body back to where it was.”
Adebayo continued to explain the extent of his muscle gain and added that he’s up by about 15 pounds.
“I just added muscle,” Adebayo said. “I came in last year at like 245 and now I’m at 260. So I put on a lot of muscle.”
Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald made sure to confirm that Adebayo indeed added all that muscle this summer alone.
“Yeah, this summer,” Adebayo said. “Because I could lift. I could actually get in the weight room and actually throw weight around.”
The 24-year-old then explained how he hopes to utilize his newfound strength in the upcoming season.
“I mean defensively, I do what I do,” Adebayo said. “Defense is all effort to me. If I really don’t want you to score, I’ll try my hardest to make sure you don’t score. That’s how I feel whenever I step on the court and I’m playing defense. My goal is to make sure you don’t score. But on the offensive end, just being able to get by dudes, really use my strength to power through certain fouls and get certain and-ones. Then finishing, of course.”
Adebayo’s muscle gain with surely help him out in the post. There was a belief going into the offseason that the youngster wanted to improve upon two key things: his jump shot and post play.
It certainly sounds like he’s in good shape to have a strong 2021-22 season in at least one of those departments.
Adebayo averaged 18.7 points, 9.0 rebounds and 5.4 assists per game in the 2020-21 campaign, shooting 57.0 percent from the field. Additionally, he chipped in with some stellar defense.
His defense will likely only improve going forward thanks to his body transformation.
Time will tell how the one-time All-Star will perform in the upcoming season, but it sounds like there’s reason to be excited.